Growing up in City Heights, Carla Pisbe was warned to steer clear of the local canyons, which she heard were filled with transients and illegal activity.

Today, she’s working with the nonprofit Ocean Discovery Institute to bring thousands of children into the canyons to learn about the “natural gems of the community.” Her work is part of a partnership between the institute and the San Diego Unified School District, one that received key support Tuesday night.

“We all know that City Heights is a highly urbanized community,” said Pisbe, a graduate of Hoover High School and UC Santa Cruz and now the institute’s environmental stewardship coordinator. “We are working to empower students in the community and teach them about their natural resources and how to protect them.”

Under a proposal that San Diego school trustees unanimously approved Tuesday, more than 30 acres of Manzanita Canyon in City Heights will be transformed into an $8 million living science lab for thousands of students. A modern education complex to be designed by Rob Wellington Quigley — the famed architect who designed San Diego’s new domed central library — will anchor the space near Van Dyke Avenue and Thorn Street, which is within a mile of nine schools.

The 11,000-square-foot Living Lab complex will sit on a half-acre owned by the institute, which has an agreement with the city of San Diego to operate and maintain 30 acres in an area known as the gateway of Manzanita Canyon. The area has been abused and underappreciated over the years, said Ocean Discovery’s founder and executive director, Shara Fisler.

Manzanita Canyon is part of the Pueblo Watershed, which feeds into the ocean via Chollas Creek. It is also one of the most degraded portions of any watershed in the county.

“We are creating community ownership of the canyon, and it will transform students and families,” said Fisler, who has worked with San Diego Unified since 1999.

The science complex will be built with proceeds from San Diego Unified’s $2.8 billion Proposition Z bond measure, which voters approved in November. The ballot measure touted the development of new science facilities for students and teachers.

The Living Lab will coordinate lessons with the district’s science curriculum and the state’s new Common Core academic standards. It will mostly serve 10,000 students at 14 campuses in and around City Heights, along with offering programs for parents and the community.

Coordinators of the project expect it to help answer the national call to guide more students into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. These subjects are increasingly essential to a college education and subsequent careers, said Don Whisman, who oversees science education in San Diego Unified.

“There is a demand for this pipeline of kids to fill the STEM professions in our community — let alone nationwide,” Whisman said.

Of the 10 fastest-growing occupations, nine are STEM-related. About 80 percent of today’s jobs require math and science. More than 50 percent of STEM workers are older than 40, and 26 percent are older than 50, according to the Sally Ride Science Academy in San Diego.

Roughly 80 percent of students who graduate from the Ocean Discovery Institute’s after-school science program go on to enroll in a four-year university. The program works with students through high school, tracks their college education and often recruits them back as employees, interns and volunteers.

In 2012, on behalf of the institute, Fisler accepted the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.